The state is preparing to take over 45 miles of the rail lines between Worcester and Boston next month to allow a major increase in commuter rail service and is nearing completion of a related bridge elevation project to allow double-stacked freight through Central and Western Massachusetts for the first time.

Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray said the state will finalize a second part of a major compact with CSX Corp. next month that will allow expanded freight and commuter rail service after years of planning, negotiations and construction.

He said he expects transportation officials to announce a definitive plan and an expanded schedule for commuter rail service between Worcester and Boston when those agreements are signed. He said that will increase service from the current 13.5 trips per day to 20 trips a day during the next year.

The lieutenant governor said he hopes the first of those additional train runs will be added immediately and others will be added in the months that follow. He said that could also provide for the addition of some express trains.

Combined with the completion later this year of the raising of 14 rail bridges and relocation of a major freight yard from Boston to Worcester, the commuter and freight rail improvements should deliver significant new opportunities for economic growth, he said.

Mr. Murray, who had been working on Worcester rail projects first as mayor of Worcester and during the last five years as lieutenant governor, said he plans to focus on maximizing new opportunities for new jobs and business expansion created by the rail improvements.

The challenge going forward, he said, is, “How do you leverage it and maximize it in terms of what it means in terms of economic development, quality of life and environmental benefits,” in Central Massachusetts, Boston and southeastern Massachusetts.

“There are opportunities created in linking up New England’s largest city and its second-largest city and the synergies that are created not only between life sciences and biotech, but other innovation sectors, financial services and colleges and universities,” Mr. Murray said.

“It’s really, I think, a huge opportunity for businesses that are growing and expanding that may be priced out of the Boston area and being able to market them and keep them in Massachusetts,” he said. For Central Massachusetts, he said, the freight expansion will further diversify the region’s economy by encouraging more warehouse, packaging and light manufacturing operations.

The agreements will include transfer of the 45 miles of freight lines Between Worcester and Boston, as well as 37 miles of rail lines between Taunton, Fall River and New Bedford, and eight miles known as the Grand Junction that runs over the Charles River through Cambridge, Charleston and Chelsea. The state will also benefit by freeing up the Boston freight yard for 80 acres of new development parcels along the Charles River across from Cambridge.

The state will pay CSX $100 million to acquire the freight lines and will assume the cost of operating and maintaining them. For its part, CSX is investing $129 million for rail yard construction in Worcester, Westboro and West Springfield, while the state and CSX are sharing the cost of bridge work at 31 locations between New York state and Worcester to raise clearances for double-stacked freight.

Secretary of Transportation Richard A. Davey said the addition of commuter rail trains will be incremental, relying on existing equipment, while the cost of maintaining the rail lines will not be new, as the state already pays CSX to maintain the lines used for commuter rail. Moreover, he said state maintenance of the lines should also allow the state to eliminate delays caused when freight was using the lines, during very warm weather in the summer when speeds are cut down to 45 mph.

Mr. Davey said the purchase will also create “clear lines of accountability as to how we provide better service,” which has not always been the case with dual private and public operation of those lines.

He said the project breaks new ground for expansion of commuter rail using existing freight lines that are being studied by many other states around the country.

“It’s huge for a few reasons. It’s a model agreement for other states that are trying to work with CSX and other freight railroads to expand high speed and commuter rail service,” Mr. Davey said, noting the state found a way to do that without reducing freight services.

The administration released a report yesterday titled “Transforming the rail network for economic and community development” that details progress on the project

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